What do you like in games ? What do you find fun ?

After designing 2 iOS games , I have come to the conclusion .. Don't rush games , EVER .. So , for my next project , I want to take things slow , do a little research , think of great ideas . That's where you come in . I'm not asking for an idea for a game . I'm just asking you to list your favourite games and why they're your favourite .

I have been doing research myself and if i had to pick one element that i think is crucial to game experience that would be curiosity. The game has to have a clear cut goal that the player will look forward to arrive to. This sounds simplistic however i find that there are lots and lots of games that waste time and by that i mean, they make the player go through stages just for the sake of it.

This is why i loved Sword and Sworcery. You could stop and smell the flowers (figure of speech ).

EDIT: Thats for what i consider to be real games of course. If you want to make something that is going to be a success in money terms ( which by no means is something frowned upon ) i think you should go for strong visual stimuli since the target group of apps that have such a future is pretty wide and in its crushing majority, non-gamers the way i define gamers to be ( MGS , Fez etc )

I am not making games for the money [ but I would sure like some ] , I just want to make my game as fun as possible . My past two games only took 1 week each to make , this time I'm going for somewhere between 6 - 8 months of work . I'm going to run the game by my family , friends etc. while it's in development . I'm aiming for something like SkullFace .

good motivation!

I figure running your game past a couple of friends and family first never hurts, even with the fast games.

I figure running your game past a couple of friends and family first never hurts, even with the fast games.

Nobody really has the time nowadays to sit and play games except for the ones who make them . If I had asked people to play it , then it would have slowed me down .

I figure running your game past a couple of friends and family first never hurts, even with the fast games.

Nobody really has the time nowadays to sit and play games except for the ones who make them . If I had asked people to play it , then it would have slowed me down .

More time can easily be the difference between a mediocre game and a great game.

You could even post short demos here on the arcade and ask for feedback. Feedback can be valuable as it may point your attention to quirks you hadn't seen before.

You're going to get very frustrated trying to pinpoint what makes a game fun. I can give a list of what games I enjoy:

Contra III
Paper Mario + other Mario RPG series
Mario games in General
Team Fortress 2
Portal
Nearly all Zelda Games
Banjo Kazooie


They're all fun in there own way, and I enjoy all of them depending what mood I am in. I feel like I enjoy games that have personality.

My past two games only took 1 week each to make , this time I'm going for somewhere between 6 - 8 months of work . I'm going to run the game by my family , friends etc. while it's in development . I'm aiming for something like SkullFace .

I'm really glad this game is having a positive effect on the stencyl community

Honestly though, if you've only finished 1 week games before, i'd aim for a month long dev cycle. SkullFace was originally intended to be made in 2 weeks as a small game, but it ALWAYS balloons out of control for me when i get my teeth sunk into development 

It's hard to pinpoint what makes a game a "good experience", but i take a lot of design lessons from Fumito Ueda of team ico, namely: Design by subtraction. Less is more. Focus on the core, simple gameplay - and let everything else fall into place around that.

My past two games only took 1 week each to make , this time I'm going for somewhere between 6 - 8 months of work . I'm going to run the game by my family , friends etc. while it's in development . I'm aiming for something like SkullFace .

I'm really glad this game is having a positive effect on the stencyl community

Honestly though, if you've only finished 1 week games before, i'd aim for a month long dev cycle. SkullFace was originally intended to be made in 2 weeks as a small game, but it ALWAYS balloons out of control for me when i get my teeth sunk into development 

It's hard to pinpoint what makes a game a "good experience", but i take a lot of design lessons from Fumito Ueda of team ico, namely: Design by subtraction. Less is more. Focus on the core, simple gameplay - and let everything else fall into place around that.

It's not that I'm not capable enough .. I was just hurrying to get the game out .. I have made plenty of awesome experiments that took me a month to make ..

I would agree with Greg suggestion because no offence; at your age, you don't really have to worry about making 'products' which make money and stuff.. you will have a better experience learning different things by making shorter games, which focus on things you don't know or have not done..

@Greg: i thought ur icon was some zebras drinking water.. but today it looked like a skeletal bee or something.. what is it?

I would agree with Greg suggestion because no offence; at your age, you don't really have to worry about making 'products' which make money and stuff.. you will have a better experience learning different things by making shorter games, which focus on things you don't know or have not done..

I don't worry about my 'products' making money or not , but if they make money , it can't hurt . can it ?

@Greg: i thought ur icon was some zebras drinking water.. but today it looked like a skeletal bee or something.. what is it?

haha

awesome is an understatement xD

Like!